Kim Clijsters the one to beat at US Open
Defending champion Kim Clijsters will arrive at the US Open this year having come full circle from her surprise run to the title at Flushing Meadows in 2009, and expectations are high that the crowd favourite can make it back-to-back championships in 2010.
Rewind to last year, when Clijsters was trading largely on her past reputation as US Open organisers scheduled her opening match against 79th-ranked Viktoriya Kutuzova on centre court.
In an ominous taste of things to come, at least for her six subsequent opponents, Clijsters dispatched the Ukrainian 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour, as Arthur Ashe court again proved a happy hunting ground for the 2005 US Open champion.
The Belgian had not played a match in New York since defeating Mary Pierce in a one-sided final four year’s earlier, but despite more than two years away from the court and just two warm-up tournaments in preparation, it was as though she’d never left.
After that impressive start, Clijsters continued her unbeaten path through the US Open draw with wins against Venus Williams (fourth round) and Serena Williams (semi-finals) before defeating this year’s top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the final and celebrating the victory on centre court with daughter Jada and husband Brian Lynch.
Had Clijsters lost to Kutuzova in her opening match, or the double-handed Marion Bartoli in the second round, no-one would have batted an eyelid. After all, the mum-of-one, an unranked wildcard at the tournament, couldn’t be expected to recapture her old form so fast.
Fast forward 12 months and the air is thick with expectations of success for Clijsters, who will return to the US Open as its defending champion, second seed and in all likelihood the favourite for this year’s title too.
They are expectations born out of her success here last year, which has been followed by three titles on the WTA Tour this year, including in Cincinnati during August. While Clijsters hasn’t been the model of consistency this season, she has built her ranking up to its current comeback high of world No. 3 with the assistance of those three titles in 2010, all of them won on hard courts.
And after generating such high expectations at the US Open last year, her 2010 Grand Slam performances have disappointed by comparison. Her third-round capitulation (6-0, 6-1) to Nadia Petrova at the Australian Open was a dismal result by any standards; injury kept her out of the French Open; and at Wimbledon the 27-year-old relinquished a one-set advantage against the usually more mentally fragile Vera Zvonareva to make a quarter-final exit from the All England Club.
Still, there can be little doubt that if Clijsters delivers her best tennis for two weeks again in New York, then she should be the player to beat in the women’s draw this year, especially with world No. 1 Serena Williams sidelined with a foot injury and the top seeded and in-form Caroline Wozniacki still yet to prove she can convert her substantial talents into the ultimate Grand Slam success.
No pressure, Kim, but this one looks like it’s yours to lose.
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